Song writing method and apparatus using touch screen in mobile terminal

ABSTRACT

A song writing method and apparatus using a touch screen in a mobile terminal are disclosed. The song writing method includes: displaying, upon activation of a song writing mode, an onscreen musical keyboard of an octave on the touch screen; identifying, when a key of the onscreen musical keyboard is touched, a musical note mapped to the touched key through computation of coordinates of the touched key; creating musical interval data on the basis of the identified note and the current octave level; and converting the musical interval data into sound data recognizable by the mobile terminal and outputting the sound data. Hence, various types of songs can be conveniently composed through the song writing method employing the onscreen musical keyboard. The applicability of the mobile terminal can be extended through a function that can mix a written song with contents generated through various musical instruments.

CLAIMS OF PRIORITY

This is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/547,556 filed onAug. 26, 2009 which in turn claims the benefit, pursuant to 35 USC 119,to an earlier application filed in the Korean Intellectual PropertyOffice on Sep. 1, 2008 and assigned Serial No. 10-2008-0085826, thecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a mobile terminal and, moreparticularly, to a song writing method and apparatus using the touchscreen in a mobile terminal.

2. Description of the Related Art

With recent advances in communication technologies, mobile terminalshave been widely popularized and have become one of the necessities oflife. Such a mobile terminal enables conversation between a caller andrecipient through a mobile communication network, and produces a bellsound, alarm sound and background music to notify reception of a call ortext message by playing back a preset song file using an embeddedhardware chip.

In particular, a mobile terminal capable of playing back music files canproduce high quality sounds and store a large number of song filesthanks to advanced memory chips.

With proliferation of user generated contents (UGC) containingself-produced songs and moving images, users show a growing interest increating songs or video materials utilizing mobile terminals.

The user of a mobile terminal may directly write a song by inputtingthrough the keypad or by entering musical notes or drawing waveforms onthe touch screen, and store the written song in a music file format forhearing or saving.

However, song writing through keypad input requires the user to beskillful in manipulation of various keys, and song writing throughmusical notes or waveforms requires the user to have some backgroundknowledge of music. This process is long and cumbersome and, thus, auser is inconvenienced in developing songs.

In addition, there may be restrictions on representing informationregarding the music paper for drawing musical notations or the palettefor drawing waveforms, on the single touch screen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method that can increase utilization ofsong writing programs in a mobile terminal by implementing auser-friendly musical keyboard on an intuitive user interface.

The present invention also provides a method that can overcome the spacelimitation by displaying only a musical keyboard of an octave and simplesetting keys.

The present invention further provides a method that can mix a songwritten through an onscreen musical keyboard with contents generatedthrough various musical instruments.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a song writing method usinga touch screen in a mobile terminal includes: displaying, uponactivation of a song writing mode, an onscreen musical keyboard of anoctave on the touch screen; identifying, when a key of the onscreenmusical keyboard is touched, a musical note mapped to the touched keythrough computation of coordinates of the touched key; creating musicalinterval data on the basis of the identified note and the current octavelevel; and converting the musical interval data into sound datarecognizable by the mobile terminal and outputting the sound data.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a song writing apparatususing a touch screen in a mobile terminal includes: a display unitdisplaying, upon activation of a song writing mode, an onscreen musicalkeyboard of an octave on the touch screen; a data processing sectionidentifying, when a key of the onscreen musical keyboard is touched, amusical note mapped to the touched key through computation ofcoordinates of the touched key, creating musical interval data on thebasis of the identified note and the current octave level, andconverting the musical interval data into sound data recognizable by themobile terminal and outputting the sound data; and a control unitoutputting the sound data.

In the embodiments of the present invention, various types of songs canbe conveniently composed through an enhanced song writing programemploying an onscreen musical keyboard on the touch screen of a mobileterminal.

The applicability of a mobile terminal can be extended through afunction that can mix a song written through an onscreen musicalkeyboard with contents generated through various musical instruments.

The song writing method can transform the user of a mobile terminal froma passive consumer only listening to songs created by others to anactive creator self-producing songs that can be shared with others.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will be moreapparent from the following detailed description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a mobile terminal according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a song writing procedure using an onscreenmusical keyboard on the touch screen of a mobile terminal according toanother embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D and 3E are screen representations illustratingsteps in the procedure of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a procedure to mix a composed song withcontents generated through another musical instrument according toanother embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are screen representations illustrating steps in themixing procedure of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a song writing procedure using an onscreenmusical keyboard and other musical instrument according to anotherembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure of song writing byreplacing musical notes mapped to touched keys on the onscreen musicalkeyboard with those of another musical instrument.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention are described indetail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same referencesymbols are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or likeparts. For the purposes of clarity and simplicity, detailed descriptionsof well-known functions and structures incorporated herein may beomitted to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the present invention.

To help understand the invention, the following definitions are used: an‘octave’ is a series of eight notes in a musical scale. That is, anoctave is the interval between a reference note and the eighth notetherefrom in a musical scale. For example, an octave includes eightnotes between the middle ‘Do’ and the next ‘Do’ in the same pitch class.In a typical musical keyboard, the middle ‘Do’ corresponds to the noteat the center, and the next ‘Do’ corresponds to a lower ‘Do’ or higher‘Do’, which is the eighth note from the middle ‘Do’. Musical ‘intervaldata’ indicates data obtained on the basis of notes corresponding tokeys touched on the musical keyboard and the current octave. ‘Sounddata’ is data that can be recognized by a mobile terminal and isobtained through conversion from at least one piece of interval data.For example, sound data may include files, usable in a mobile terminal,in an MP3 (Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer-3) format, a WMA(Windows Media Audio) format, a RA (Real Audio) format, an AIFF (AudioInterchange File Format) format, and a MIDI (Musical Instrument DigitalInterface) format. Sound data in a first file format may be convertedinto sound data in a second file format depending upon the particularapplication(s) being used. ‘Mixing’ indicates a procedure that mixes asong written through an onscreen musical keyboard and contents generatedthrough other musical instruments together into a new song. Mixing mayindicate a procedure that generates interval data by replacing musicalnotes mapped to touched keys on the onscreen musical keyboard with thoseof another musical instrument. Mixing may indicate a procedure thatgenerates interval data by mixing musical notes input through theonscreen musical keyboard and those of another musical instrumentcorresponding to the input musical notes.

Note that the mobile terminal according to the teachings of the presentinvention is a terminal that can be used for song writing utilizing anonscreen musical keyboard on the touch screen, and may be any terminal,such as a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), code divisionmultiple access (CDMA) terminal, wideband CDMA (WCDMA) terminal, globalsystem for mobile communications (GSM) terminal, international mobiletelecommunications 2000 (IMT 2000) terminal, smart phone, or universalmobile telecommunications system (UMTS) terminal.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a mobile terminal according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the mobile terminal includes a control unit 100,input unit 110, display unit 120, storage unit 130, audio unit 140, andradio frequency unit 150. In particular, the control unit 100 includes adata processing section 102.

The input unit 110 includes a plurality of keys for inputtingalphanumeric information, and a plurality of function keys for settingvarious functions. The function keys may include an effect sound key,direction key, side key, shortcut key, scroll wheel, and setting key.Examples of a setting key may include a save key, pre-listening key,upload key, and download key. The input unit 110 may be implementedusing a touch screen, in which case the input unit 110 may also providea display function. The input unit 110 sends an input key signal relatedto user settings and controlling of the mobile terminal to the controlunit 100.

When an onscreen musical keyboard of an octave is displayed on thedisplay unit 120, the input unit 110 sends a key signal corresponding toa touched key of the onscreen musical keyboard and an octave levelchange signal corresponding to a touch on a flick zone of the onscreenmusical keyboard to the control unit 100. The flick zone is a zone thatdetects a touch and movement in the left or right direction to shift theonscreen musical keyboard. For mixing a song written through theonscreen musical keyboard and contents generated through other musicalinstruments together, the input unit 110 sends a signal input by aneffect sound button to the control unit 100. The input unit 110 sends aninput signal, which initiates generation of interval data by replacingmusical notes mapped to touched keys on the onscreen musical keyboardwith those of another musical instrument, to the control unit 100.

The input unit 110 sends function key signals, for pre-listening, savingand uploading of a composed song, to the control unit 100.

The display unit 120 displays operation states, operation results, andvarious information under the control of the control unit 100. Thedisplay unit 120 displays menus of the mobile terminal, informationinput by the user, function setting information, and information to beprovided to the user. The display unit 120 may include a panel that iscomposed of display devices such as liquid crystal display (LCD) devicesor organic light emitting diodes (OLED). In particular, the display unit120 has a touch screen capability, and can act as an input meansperforming the function of the input unit 110. The display unit 120receives a user command or graphic information by generating a voltageor current signal corresponding to a pressed location on a touch panelof the touch screen. The touch screen includes a touch panel, LCD panel,and backlight stacked in series. The touch screen may further includesignal lines transmitting signals from the touch panel to the controlunit 100, and a tape carrier package (TCP) connected to the lowersubstrate of the LCD panel to feed electric signals to the driving partof the LCD panel. In particular, the display unit 120 highlights atouched key of the onscreen musical keyboard under the control of thecontrol unit 100. The display unit 120 displays a flick zone forchanging the octave level. The display unit 120 displays the octavelevel, which may be lowered or raised according to the direction of atouch on the flick zone. The display unit 120 displays a list ofcontents that are generated through various musical instruments and aremixable with the song written through the onscreen musical keyboard,under the control of the control unit 100.

The storage unit 130 stores application programs for embodiments of thepresent invention. The storage unit 130 may include a program storagearea and a data storage area. The program storage area stores anoperating system for enabling the mobile terminal to control theoperation of various hardware within the mobile terminal and software(programs) operating within the mobile terminal, a program for obtaininginterval data on the basis of notes corresponding to keys touched on theonscreen musical keyboard and the current octave, and a program forconverting interval data of a composed song into sound data recognizableby the mobile terminal. The data storage area stores data generatedduring the use of the mobile terminal, interval data obtained on thebasis of notes corresponding to keys touched on the onscreen musicalkeyboard and the current octave, and sound data recognizable by themobile terminal obtained through conversion from interval data of acomposed song.

The audio unit 140 reproduces an audio signal from the control unit 100,and sends an audio signal such as a voice signal from a microphone MICto the control unit 100. That is, the audio unit 140 converts voice andacoustic data into audible sounds for output through a speaker SPK, andconverts an audio signal, such as a voice signal from a microphone MIC,into audio data for output to the control unit 100. In particular, theaudio unit 140 reproduces sound data that is obtained through conversionfrom interval data created on the basis of notes corresponding to keystouched on the onscreen musical keyboard and the associated octave. Theaudio unit 140 plays a song that is created through mixing a songmaterial composed through the onscreen musical keyboard and contentsgenerated through various musical instruments together, under thecontrol of the control unit 100.

The radio frequency unit 150 establishes a communication channel betweenthe mobile terminal and a serving base station, and performscommunication operations to send and receive necessary signals. Theradio frequency unit 150 may include a radio frequency transmitter forup-converting the frequency of a signal to be transmitted and amplifyingthe signal, and a radio frequency receiver for low-noise amplifying areceived signal and down-converting the frequency of the signal. Inparticular, the radio frequency unit 150 performs communicationoperations between the mobile terminal and base station through awireless connection, e.g, Internet, to upload song data composed throughthe onscreen musical keyboard, and to download contents generatedthrough other musical instruments.

The data processing section 102 controls input through the onscreenmusical keyboard under the control of the control unit 100. Inparticular, the data processing section 102 obtains a musical notecorresponding to a touched key on the onscreen musical keyboard. Thedata processing section 102 may compute the coordinates of a touchedlocation on the touch screen, identify the musical note mapped to thecomputed coordinates, create interval data on the basis of theidentified musical note and associated octave, convert the interval datainto sound data recognizable by the mobile terminal, and store the sounddata in the storage unit 130.

The data processing section 102 may create interval data by mixing asong written through the onscreen musical keyboard and the contentsgenerated through other musical instruments together. The dataprocessing section 102 may mix a song written through the onscreenmusical keyboard with the contents generated through other musicalinstruments to create a new song. The data processing section 102 maycreate interval data by replacing a note corresponding to a touched keyon the onscreen musical keyboard with a note of a given musicalinstrument. The data processing section 102 may create interval data bymixing a note corresponding to a touched key on the onscreen musicalkeyboard with a note processed by a given musical instrument.

The data processing section 102 converts a piece of interval dataobtained through mixing into sound data usable by the mobile terminal.

The control unit 100 controls the overall operation of the mobileterminal and signal exchange between internal blocks thereof. Inparticular, upon reception of an input signal for song writing modeactivation, the control unit 100 controls the display unit 120 todisplay an onscreen musical keyboard of an octave. Here, the controlunit 100 can control the display unit 120 to represent a default octavecomposed of eight notes from the middle ‘Do’ being the reference note tothe next ‘Do’. Upon detection of an octave level change signal throughthe flick zone, the control unit 100 can control the display unit 120 tochange the octave level of the onscreen musical keyboard to a higheroctave or a lower octave. For example, if an octave level change signalindicates the left-hand direction, the control unit 100 controls thedisplay unit 120 to shift the onscreen musical keyboard to the left-handdirection so that the onscreen musical keyboard represents a new octaveof eight notes.

In response to a touch on a key of the onscreen musical keyboard on thedisplay unit 120, the control unit 100 controls the data processingsection 102 to identify the note mapped to the touched key aftercomputing the coordinates of the touched key, and to create intervaldata on the basis of the identified note and the set octave. The controlunit 100 may set a default octave to include eight notes from the middle‘Do’ being the reference note to the next ‘Do’. The control unit 100controls the data processing section 102 to store the created intervaldata in the storage unit 130, and to convert the interval data intosound data usable by the mobile terminal. The created sound data may bea file in an MP3, WMA, RA, AIFF or MIDI format recognizable by themobile terminal. Sound data in a file format may be converted into sounddata in another file format according to applications. The control unit100 can control the audio unit 140 to reproduce the created sound data.

Upon reception of the sound signal, the control unit 100 controls thedisplay unit 120 to display a list of contents that are generatedthrough other musical instruments and are playable together with thewritten song. That is, the control unit 100 displays a list of contentsmixable with the written song. The control unit 100 controls the dataprocessing section 102 to mix the written song with a selected contentand to generate sound data usable by the mobile terminal from the mixedresult. The control unit 100 may control the data processing section 102to generate interval data by applying a musical note mapped to a touchedkey of the onscreen musical keyboard to a selected one of musicalinstruments playable together.

As described above, the song writing apparatus using the touch screen ina mobile terminal may receive an input musical note through the onscreenmusical keyboard, create interval data using the input note andassociated octave, convert at least one piece of interval data intosound data for output, change the octave level, and mix a composed songwith contents generated through various musical instruments. Next,operations of the song writing apparatus are described in detail withreference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a song writing procedure using an onscreenmusical keyboard on the touch screen of a mobile terminal according toanother exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 3A to 3Eare screen representations illustrating steps in the procedure of FIG.2.

Referring to FIG. 2, the control unit 100 of the mobile terminalreceives an input signal for song writing mode activation (201). Thecontrol unit 100 controls the display unit 120 to display an initialscreen for the song writing mode (203). Here, an onscreen musicalkeyboard of an octave is included in the initial screen, and the currentoctave level and the flick zone are also included. For example, as shownin FIG. 3A, upon activation of the song writing mode, the control unit100 controls the display unit 120 to display an onscreen musicalkeyboard 307 of an octave, octave level indication 301, effect soundbutton 303, setting button 305, and flick zone 309. The octave levelindicator 301 indicates the current octave level governing the eightnotes of the onscreen musical keyboard 307 on the display unit 120.

The control unit 100 checks whether a touch is detected on the onscreenmusical keyboard (205). When a touch is not detected at step 205, thecontrol unit 100 controls the display unit 120 to continuously displaythe initial screen for the song writing mode.

When a touch is detected on the onscreen musical keyboard, the dataprocessing section 102 computes the coordinates of the touched locationon the display unit 120, and identifies the note assigned to thecomputed coordinates (207). For example, as shown in FIG. 3B, the dataprocessing section 102 computes the coordinates 311 of a touchedlocation on the touch screen, and identifies the note assigned to thekey at the computed coordinates 311.

In the case where two or more touches are performed, the control unit100 can compute the coordinates of all the touched locations andidentify all corresponding notes.

The control unit 100 controls the display unit 120 to highlight thetouched key whose note is identified at step 209 by the data processingsection 102 (209). For example, as shown in FIG. 3C, the control unit100 controls the display unit 120 to highlight a key 313 at the touchedlocation.

The control unit 100 controls the data processing section 102 to createinterval data using the note corresponding to the touched key and thecurrent octave level (211). Here, the control unit 100 may set a defaultoctave composed of eight notes from the middle ‘Do’ to the next ‘Do’.The control unit 100 may also set a default octave composed of eightnotes from a note other than the middle ‘Do’ to the same note in ahigher or lower octave.

The control unit 100 controls the data processing section 102 to storethe created interval data in the storage unit 130 (213).

The control unit 100 checks whether a signal for song writing modetermination is input (215). Here, the control unit 100 may detect asignal for song writing mode termination generated by a setting button.

When a signal for song writing mode termination is input, the controlunit 100 controls the data processing section 102 to convert theinterval data into sound data recognizable by the mobile terminal (221).The sound data may be files in different formats usable by otherapplications. The control unit 100 stores the sound data in the storageunit 130 (223).

When a signal for song writing mode termination is not input at step215, the control unit 100 checks whether a signal for octave levelchange is input (217). When a signal for octave level change is inputthrough the flick zone, the control unit 100 lowers or raises thecurrent octave level and controls the display unit 120 to represent thenew octave level (219). For example, the control unit 100 may controlthe octave level change according to a touch on the flick zone as shownin FIG. 3D, and control the display unit 120 to update the octave levelindication 315 as shown in FIG. 3E. After the octave level change, thecontrol unit 100 returns to step 205 for further detection of a touch onthe onscreen musical keyboard.

When a signal for octave level change is not input at step 217, thecontrol unit 100 returns to step 205 for further detection of a touch onthe onscreen musical keyboard.

After saving the sound data, the control unit 100 checks whether asignal for sound data output is input (225). The control unit 100 maydetect a signal for sound data output from the pre-listening key of theinput unit 110.

When a signal for sound data output is input, the control unit 100controls the audio unit 140 to output the sound data through the speakerSPK (227).

When a signal for sound data output is not input, the control unit 100performs a requested operation (229).

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a procedure to mix a composed song withcontents generated through another musical instrument. FIGS. 5A and 5Bare screen representations illustrating steps in the mixing procedure ofFIG. 4.

Referring to FIG. 4, the control unit 100 of the mobile terminal detectsan effect sound button signal for mixing a song composed through thesong writing method with a content generated through another musicalinstrument (401).

Upon detection of an effect sound button signal, the control unit 100controls the display unit 120 to display a list of musical instrumentsmixable with a song written through the onscreen musical keyboard (403).For example, as shown in FIG. 5A, the control unit 100 may cause a listof various musical instruments to be displayed on the touch screen.

The control unit 100 checks whether a signal for selecting one of thelisted musical instruments is detected (405). That is, the user mayselect a musical instrument for mixing. Step 404 may be repeated toselect multiple musical instruments for mixing.

When a signal for selecting one of the listed musical instruments is notdetected, the control unit 100 controls the display unit 120 tocontinuously display the list of musical instruments. When a signal forselecting one of the listed musical instruments is detected, the controlunit 100 controls the display unit 120 to display a list of contentsrelated to the selected musical instrument (407). For example, when aguitar is selected as shown in FIG. 5B, the control unit 100 can controlthe display unit 120 to display “G code”, “C code” and “F code” in apopup window as a content list for the guitar.

The control unit 100 checks whether a signal for selecting one of thelisted contents is detected (409). When a signal for selecting one ofthe listed contents is not detected, the control unit 100 causescontinued display of the list of contents.

When a signal for selecting one of the listed contents is detected, thecontrol unit 100 retrieves a song written by the onscreen musicalkeyboard from the storage unit 130 (411).

The control unit 100 invokes a mixing procedure that mixes the retrievedsong with the content related to the selected musical instrument (413),and controls the data processing section 102 to produce new sound datautilizing the mixing procedure (415).

The control unit 100 stores the newly produced sound data in the storageunit 130 (417). Later, upon request, the control unit 100 may reproducethe stored sound data through the audio unit 140.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a song writing procedure using a combinationof an onscreen musical keyboard and another musical instrument.

Referring to FIG. 6, the control unit 100 of the mobile terminal detectsa mixed mode signal for composing a song utilizing a combination of theonscreen musical keyboard and other musical instrument (601).

Upon detection of a mixed mode signal, the control unit 100 controls thedisplay unit 120 to display a list of musical instruments mixable withthe onscreen musical keyboard (603). The control unit 100 checks whethera signal for selecting one of the listed musical instruments is detected(605). Step 605 may be repeated to select multiple musical instrumentsused together for mixing.

When a signal for selecting one of the listed musical instruments is notdetected, the control unit 100 controls the display unit 120 tocontinuously display the list of musical instruments.

When a signal for selecting one of the listed musical instruments isdetected, the control unit 100 detects a touch on a key of the onscreenmusical keyboard (607). Upon detection of a touch, the control unit 100controls the data processing section 102 to identify the note mapped tothe touched key, to extract a note of the selected musical instrumentcorresponding to the identified note, and to create mixed interval dataon the basis of the note associated with the onscreen musical keyboardand the corresponding note of the selected musical instrument (609).

After creation of the mixed interval data, the control unit 100 controlsthe data processing section 102 to store the created interval data inthe storage unit 130 (611).

The control unit 100 checks whether a signal for song writing modetermination is input (613). Here, the control unit 100 may detect asignal for song writing mode termination generated by a setting button.

When a signal for song writing mode termination is input, the controlunit 100 controls the data processing section 102 to convert theinterval data into sound data recognizable by the mobile terminal (615),and stores the resulting sound data in the storage unit 130 (617).

When a signal for song writing mode termination is not input, thecontrol unit 100 returns to step 607 to further detect a touch on a keyof the onscreen musical keyboard.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure of song writing byreplacing musical notes mapped to touched keys on the onscreen musicalkeyboard with those of another musical instrument.

Referring to FIG. 7, the control unit 100 of the mobile terminal detectsan effect sound button signal for writing a song by replacing a musicalnote given by the onscreen musical keyboard with that of another musicalinstrument (701).

Upon detection of an effect sound button signal, the control unit 100controls the display unit 120 to display a list of musical instrumentsthat may produce a note replacing a note given by the onscreen musicalkeyboard (703).

The control unit 100 checks whether a signal for selecting one of thelisted musical instruments is detected (705). Step 705 may be repeatedto select multiple musical instruments used together for mixing.

When a signal for selecting one of the listed musical instruments is notdetected, the control unit 100 controls the display unit 120 tocontinuously display the list of musical instruments.

When a signal for selecting one of the listed musical instruments isdetected, the control unit 100 controls the display unit 120 to displaya list of contents related to the selected musical instrument (707).

The control unit 100 checks whether a signal for selecting one of thelisted contents is detected (709). When a signal for selecting one ofthe listed contents is not detected, the control unit 100 causescontinued display of the list of contents.

When a signal for selecting one of the listed contents is detected, thecontrol unit 100 identifies a note mapped to a touched key on theonscreen musical keyboard (711).

The control unit 100 creates interval data by replacing the identifiednote of the onscreen musical keyboard with a note extracted from theselected content (713). Thereafter, the control unit 100 checks whethera signal for song writing mode termination is input (715). Here, thecontrol unit 100 may detect a signal for song writing mode terminationgenerated by a setting button.

When a signal for song writing mode termination is input, the controlunit 100 controls the data processing section 102 to convert theinterval data into sound data recognizable by the mobile terminal (717),and stores the resulting sound data in the storage unit 130 (719).

When a signal for song writing mode termination is not input, thecontrol unit 100 returns to step 711 to further detect a touch on a keyof the onscreen musical keyboard. As would be appreciated, a songwriting mode termination may be explicitly determined or implicitlydetermined. For example, the section of a second application may be usedto provide a song writing mode termination signal.

The above-described methods according to the present invention can berealized in hardware or as software or computer code that can be storedin a recording medium such as a CD ROM, an RAM, a floppy disk, a harddisk, or a magneto-optical disk or downloaded over a network, so thatthe methods described herein can be rendered in such software using ageneral purpose computer, or a special processor or in programmable ordedicated hardware, such as an ASIC or FPGA. As would be understood inthe art, the computer, the processor or the programmable hardwareinclude memory components, e.g., RAM, ROM, Flash, etc. that may store orreceive software or computer code that when accessed and executed by thecomputer, processor or hardware implement the processing methodsdescribed herein.

Although exemplary embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed in detail hereinabove, it should be understood that manyvariations and modifications of the basic inventive concept hereindescribed, which may appear to those skilled in the art, will still fallwithin the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention as defined in the appended claims.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A method comprising: displaying a representation ofat least one portion of a musical instrument via a display; identifyingan input indicating at least a direction thereof on or in proximity of aspecified area of the display; and determining a musical propertyassociated with the representation based at least in part on the input.22. The method of claim 21, wherein the displaying comprises: displayingan image of at least one portion of a musical keyboard.
 23. The methodof claim 21, wherein the determining comprises: setting an octaveassociated with the representation as part of the musical property. 24.The method of claim 23, wherein the setting comprises: modifying theoctave from a first octave to a second octave.
 25. The method of claim21, further comprising: displaying another representation of the atleast one portion based at least in part on the musical property. 26.The method of claim 21, wherein the determining comprises: determining amusical note corresponding to the at least one portion.
 27. The methodof claim 26, further comprising: presenting sound data corresponding tothe musical note.
 28. The method of claim 26, wherein the determiningthe musical note is performed based at least in part on receivinganother input on or in proximity of the specified area.
 29. The methodof claim 26, further comprising: determining another musical notecorresponding to the at least one portion, the another musical noteassociated with another musical instrument; and combining at least aportion of the musical note and at least a portion of the other musicalnote to produce a mixed musical note.
 30. The method of claim 29,further comprising: presenting sound data corresponding to the mixedmusical note.
 31. An apparatus comprising: a display unit to display arepresentation of at least one portion of a musical instrument via adisplay; and a control unit to identify an input indicating at least adirection thereof on or in proximity of a specified area of the display,and to determine a musical property associated with the representationbased at least in part on the input.
 32. The apparatus of claim 31,wherein the display unit is configured to: display an image of at leastone portion of a musical keyboard.
 33. The apparatus of claim 31,wherein the control unit is configured to: set an octave associated withthe representation as part of the musical property.
 34. The apparatus ofclaim 33, wherein the control unit is configured to: modify the octavefrom a first octave to a second octave.
 35. The apparatus of claim 31,wherein the control unit is configured to: determine a musical notecorresponding to the at least one portion.
 36. The apparatus of claim35, wherein the control unit is further configured to: present sounddata corresponding to the musical note.
 37. The apparatus of claim 35,wherein the control unit is further configured to: determine anothermusical note corresponding to the at least one portion, the anothermusical note associated with another musical instrument; and combine atleast a portion of the musical note and at least a portion of the othermusical note to produce a mixed musical note.
 38. The apparatus of claim37, wherein the control unit is further configured to: present sounddata corresponding to the mixed musical note.
 39. The apparatus of claim31, where in the control unit is configured to: store at least a portionof sound data corresponding to the musical property in a musical fileformat.
 40. A non-transitory machine-readable storage device storinginstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause theone or more processors to perform operations comprising: displaying arepresentation of at least one portion of a musical instrument via adisplay; identifying an input indicating at least a direction thereof onor in proximity of a specified area of the display; and determining amusical property associated with the representation based at least inpart